The Serbian Red Cross has launched an international appeal for humanitarian aid
to alleviate the effects of six days of Nato air strikes, according to a report from the
official Yugoslav state news agency, Tanjug.

The appeal was addressed to Serbs abroad, humanitarian
organisations and "all people of good will who have been expressing
their solidarity since the outset of the aggression" to provide
whatever help they can.

The call for aid came as international efforts to help the thousands of Albanians fleeing over the border from Kosovo were stepped up, with the first batch of aid supplies arriving in the Albanian capital, Tirana.

International efforts to help refugees have been stepped up

The Serbian Red Cross appeal said the toll of
dead and injured from the Nato bombing was growing every day, and that
there was a mass exodus of the population from the worst-hit areas.

The Nato air attacks directed against military
targets had also hit residential apartment buildings, refugee camps,
factories, schools, churches and the Red Cross headquarters itself in
Kosovo, said the appeal.

Stocks of food and medicines were no longer sufficient and
the humanitarian situation was growing more serious by the hour
since all the international humanitarian organisations apart from the
International Committee of the Red Cross had left the country, it said.

The appeal said many supplies were urgently needed
including milk, baby food, blankets, numerous foodstuffs and
candles.